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Graphic Novels Manga YA Reads

Scott Pilgrim 1

by Bryan Lee O’Malley

Note: This title is YA!

Scott Pilgrim is a 23 year old, who lives in Toronto with his roommate Wallace Wells. He is a bass player in a band consisting of his friends, Stephen Stills and Kim Pine. All of them are holding a little grudge against Scott since he started dating 17 year-old, Knives Chau. They met on the bus when Knives dropped all her stuff and Scott helped her pick it up, then invited her to band practice.

When Knives arrives and listens to the music she falls in love with it. She changes her whole outfit and personality, and starts acting like Kim Pine. Even though Scott’s girlfriend changes her whole personality, he couldn’t care less, he is too busy thinking about his dream girl..literally. Ever since he moved to Toronto he dreams about a girl rollerblading. One day, Scott encounters her in real life and learns her name is Ramona Flowers.

After Scott attempts to get in touch with Ramona, he receives a threatening email from someone he doesn’t know, Matthew Patel. Scott mostly ignores it, too busy preparing for his upcoming concert. At the concert, Matthew Patel appears and reveals himself as Ramona’s first evil ex. Him and Scott end up fighting in a video game style battle from which Scott emerges victorious. Ramona then tells Scott that in order for them to date, he will have to defeat ALL SEVEN of her evil exes!!

The Scott Pilgrim series contains six books that include comedy, fantasy, action and romance. In each book Scott fights a different ex, and readers will want to keep going to find out more about Ramona’s romantic history, which is full of twists and turns.

The book’s style is very bold, it pops. There are two versions of the book: one with color and one in black in white. Either way, both of the books pop because they both have very thick dark lines that make the book seem like it’s in your face. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an eBook version of this series, but there is a movie on Netflix and there is a video game based on this series. You can watch people play the game on Youtube.

This series is recommended for manga readers, video game players, or romantics.

Categories
Graphic Novels

Snapdragon by Kat Leyh

Snapdragon doesn’t have a lot of friends but who would’ve thought she would befriend the town outcast, Jack. Everyone says Jack’s a witch, but in reality she’s just an old lady who wear crocks and sells roadkill skeletons on Etsy. They meet when Snap’s dog, Good Boy, gets hit by a car and Jack nurses him back to health.

One day, Snap stumbles upon a group of kids at her school playing around with a dead possum, poking it with a stick. Snap gets furious and shoos them away. Of course, they make fun of her because that’s what every bully does, but Snap doesn’t care. She’s just worried because she notices what no one else saw…a litter of baby possums, now motherless. Her classmate Louis breaks away from the cool crowd to find out if Snap is okay, and despite their differences they establish a friendship.

In asking Jack for help with the baby possums, Snapdragon unwittingly begins uncovering family secrets including the truth behind her family’s curse, experiences the joys of late night horror movies with your BFF, and confirms her suspicions that magic and witchcraft are real, after all.

This book is very different from other graphic novels that I have read. It shows the point of views of a diverse cast of characters including a range of races and characters in the LGBTQ+ community. This is a story of acceptance, learning your strengths, and knowing your self-worth.

In most of the book the full-color illustrations are very bright and vibrant, but when the characters have flashbacks it turns shadow-like, with the use of one or two colors to accentuates certain features. During dramatic moments the author makes panels slanted and zooms in for close ups.

Snapdragon is for readers who enjoy uncovering family legends, coming out stories, friendships, and a little touch of magic.

Categories
YA Reads

What if it’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

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It’s the summer and Arthur is in New York. He lives in Georgia but every summer his mother sends him to New York City to stay in her office. Thanks to Broadway plays he believes in the universe and romance.

One day when he was walking to the post office he sees this handsome boy.  He can’t resist- he has to go up and talk to him! They start to make small talk and with butterflies in his stomach, Arthur realizes this boy is gay, like him.

Arthur notices he has a big box with a name on it, Hudson. It’s probably his name but Arthur doesn’t want to be creepy and ask. Once they both dropped their stuff off, they head back outside. They’re so engrossed in conversation that they don’t see a marching band coming towards them! The band separates them, and they lose each other.

Arthur gives up and goes back to the office, but he can’t get that Hudson boy off his mind. Neither can the Hudson boy. They want to find each other so badly but it seems impossible. How can they track each other down without even knowing their names?

When I read this book I instantly got hooked on to it. It shows both of the main characters perspectives and has such a good story line. There’s some parts that made me  parts that made me really emotional because Arthur  was trying his hardest to look for “Hudson”, he wanted to be with him and love him but he tried everything. I think people who like romance will really enjoy this book.

What if it’s us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera can be found in the library under FIC ALB.

Categories
Picture Books

“This is not my hat” by Jon Klassen

41qS3oDZ5gL._SY361_BO1,204,203,200_This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen  is a book narrated by a tiny fish that stole a hat from a big fish. The tiny fish assumes that the big fish won’t find out who stole the hat or even notice it’s gone!  He is a thief and the big fish just wants his hat back!

This book is very thought provoking, character centered, ironic, and open ended. It appeals to readers from PreK through 3rd. You will like this book if you enjoy little stories that have ironic comedy that leaves you to piece together what happened.

You can find this book in the illustrated book section (blue stickers) under PIC KLA.

Categories
Events

Paul Griffin – 2019 Keynote speaker for Write to read day at (WRD) Cypress Hills

urlPaul Griffin is the award-winning author of middle school and young adult books.  He worked as a teacher, tutor, butler, dog trainer and a bartender.  He also worked as a dock worker in his college years, but writing books was his passion.  He graduated from Dartmouth college with a BA in film studies.  He started out with the Creative Arts Team, specializing in HIV/AIDS prevention and conflict resolution workshops.  Now he works with organizations like Literacy for Incarcerated Teens and Behind the Book.  Paul Griffin has written several books like; Skyjacked, Saving Marty, When Friendship Followed Me Home, Adrift, Burning Blue, Stay With Me, The Orange Houses and Ten Mile River.   He will be our Keynote speaker on Write To Read Day on May 24, 2019.  He will talk about his experience about being a writer and his life.  Please check out his website about all his amazing books by coping the link below.

https://www.paulgriffinstories.com/

  imgres “And you learn that your eyes aren’t really the things that let you see. That you can only truly see with your heart.”Paul Griffin, When Friendship Followed Me Home

Categories
Events

Scholastic Book Fair – Dec. 10 – 14

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Scholasticʼs best-known and best-loved businesses are Book Fairs. They do school events that bring the joy and excitement of reading right to students. With the look and feel of a bustling bookstore, these week-long events feature mobile cases full of affordable books based on characters and subjects kids love and want to read about. The Scholastic Book fair goes around the world to different schools giving kids a chance to get the books they love right in their school. In PS.89, kids from Pre-k to 8 grade have a chance to buy their favorite books for low prices. It will be located in the schools library room 108. There will be different books, pencils,erasers, bookmarks and much more. We hope you all come and buy something. Thank you for your time

Categories
Battle of the Books

Battle of the Books April

In honor of April’s National Poetry Month, Battle of the Books pitted Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends against Jack Prelutsky’s My Dog May be a Genius.

 

Shel Silverstein explained that his book Where the Sidewalk Ends is about him making poems about how an adult should take a rest from everything that is happening and think of them as a kid again.

The book My Dog May be a Genius is just different kid poems that Jack made so that kids can have fun while reading the book and enjoy their time reading.

We decided we should go to 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. A lot of kids in third grade choose Where the Sidewalk Ends and a lot of the 5th graders chose My Dog May be a Genius, but the fourth graders tied!

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This the graph of how many people chose Where the Sidewalk Ends and how many people chose My Dog May be a Genius Where the sidewalk end has 53.2% votes and My dog may be a genius has 46.8% votes. Many students wrote that Where the Sidewalk Ends inspired them to make poems and a fifth grader said that the book My Dog May be a Genius was very funny and he wants to make book just like it.

In my opinion I think that these both books are very special and inspiring in their own ways. I also think that the book Where the Sidewalk Ends is very weird but in a good way because they are supposed to be poems that are trying to bring adults back to a kid and it reminds me of something I would want to read when I am an adult too. Something about the book My Dog May be a Genius is that it is very childish and for kids that want to imagine different things. I think that if I would have to choose one it would be Where the Sidewalk Ends because I feel like it has a bigger story during each poem, but I think that My Dog May be a Genius will catch the kids attention.

Stay tune for next month which we will be doing DC vs MARVEL 

Categories
Chapter Books Events

The First Rule Of Punk

First RuleThe First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Perez is about a girl named Malú (María Luisa if you want to annoy her) who loves rock music, skateboarding and zines. Her parents are divorced and her mom found a job in Chicago so Malú has to move with her there. When it is Malú’s first day in her new Middle school in Chicago she wants to express herself with her punk clothes, music and makeup, but the “Queen bee” of the school, Selena, always finds a way to get her in trouble.  But that doesn’t make Malú stop doing what she loves. In fact, it motivates her to follow her heart.

Along with that, she has her mother, also referred to as ‘Super perez_featureMexican’ holding her back from being free to express herself.  Her mom always tells her to stop being a punk and be a nice Mexican Señorita like her, but Malú will always stay with her punk like her dad taught her.

One day, she makes friends and together, decide to start a rock band, They create songs with drums and other instruments. The only thing concerning Malú is what if her mom finds out? If you want to find out more about the book, hear the music, or the places in Chicago featured in the story, you can visit celiacperez.com.

Celia will join us on May 25th for Write to Read Day 2018 where students can learn about how to make their own zine!

 

Categories
Battle of the Books

Battle of the books (January)

This month we decided that the books that should compete are Sisters by Raina Telgemeier and Cardboard By Doug TenNapel.

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The book Sisters is about Raina and her sister Amara always fighting nonstop.  One day when they went on a road trip to Colorado to go see their family, they started to get closer and closer to each other.

The book Cardboard was about a little boy named Cam who lost his mother and his dad had to take care of him.  When it was Cam’s birthday his dad didn’t have any money so he bought him cardboard to make something with him, but the cardboard was magical and this neighbor name Marcus stole some and started to make monsters that come to life and take over the world.

We decided we should go to 3 and 4 grade.  A lot of the students in 3rd grade chose Cardboard  and in fourth grade it was even- some kids chose Cardboard  and Sisters.

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This up here is the graph of how many voted for Cardboard and Sisters. Sisters has 84 votes and Cardboard has 103 votes.One of the 4th graders said “I love how Cardboard has adventure and action”. Another 4th grade said that sisters reminds me of me and sister and how we fight a lot but not as much anymore.The rest of the 4th and 3rd grades said that the both books are very funny and grabs their attention.As we can all see Cardboard won, but both of the books are special in their own ways.

In my opinion i think anybody of any age can read these both books, but I only chose 4th and 3rd grade because those are the grades I read those books.  Honestly, I think that a lot of the kids chose the book that grabbed their attention, but it doesn’t matter if the book has a pretty cover or not its about if the book inspires you or catches your attention about what is happening.Maybe next time digital committee will choose a two book that are easier and will catch the little kids attention.

Stay tune for next month which we will be doing Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi vs Bone by Jeff Smith.

Categories
Battle of the Books

Battle of the books (November)

This year we’re introducing a new monthly post, Battle of the Books.  Battle of the books is when a member of Library House comes into your classroom and reads a page of the two books that the class has to choose from.  This month, digital committee presents…

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid

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Dork Diaries

The 1st Dork Diaries book, Tales From a Not-So-Fabulous Life, is about Nikki introducing herself and telling her story about the guy she likes and how this girl was trying to steal him from her.  The page we read for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Long Haul, (the 9th book) is about how Greg’s mom wants Greg to go outside because it is not natural for a kid like him to stay inside, but Greg obviously does not agree with his mom at all.  Most of the classes thought that it was funny that Greg does not want to leave his house and that Nikki is so jealous that the girl Mackenzie was trying to steal her true love Brandon.

chartOne of the third graders said “I choose Dork Diaries because it is challenging to read and I like that.”  Another third grader said, “I like Diary of a Wimpy Kid because it has a movie and it explains more.”  Most of the third, fourth, and fifth graders said that both of the books are funny, but in the end Diary of a Wimpy Kid won the battle as you can see from the graph.

In my opinion I think that all of the grades voted more for Dairy of a Wimpy Kid because most of the time boys think that Dork Diaries is a “girl book” and Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a “boy book” so they choose Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but a lot of the girls voted for Diary of a Wimpy Kid too.  Girls were able to vote for Diary of a Wimpy Kid society has made it able for girls to express themselves, even their inner masculinity. Meanwhile, males haven’t gained the chance to express their interests due to them not having the opportunity and not feeling like they are allowed to.

The fact that there’s a movie for Diary of a Wimpy Kid means kids who don’t like to read can go and watch the movie so that they have the same experience as the people who do read the series.

I’m glad that a lot of the kids in the classes showed that you can choose any book that grabs your attention.